Mike Falsetti joins the show to discuss the new wave of defensive catching techniques. We touch on one-knee setup, blocking, pitch calling, and blending the old with the new in regards to catching style. Mike is the owner of Catchers Capital, an online platform for his catching techniques and tips. Check him out on Twitter and Instagram @catcherscapital and subscribe to his website CatchersCapital.com. Catch the full show below.

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Transcript: EP58 – Mike Falsetti of Catchers Capital Talks Catching

Dan Blewett:  All right, folks. Welcome back. This is the morning brush back. I’m your cohost, Dan Blewett and I’m joined by two Chicago ons today. First, uh, are predictable cohost. Bobby Stevens is here, Bobby. Hello?

Bobby Stevens: Hello, Dan.

Dan Blewett: And then Robert, we’ve got another Chicago. Gesell let you introduce them. Who do we got here today?

Bobby Stevens: We’ve got the owner and creator of at catcher’s capital. Uh, Mike Falsetti, former pro uh, how many years? Mike? Five years,

Mike Falsetti: five years, five years in any bowl.

Bobby Stevens: So we had to bring Mike on because as the podcasts catching experts, I needed a little backup. So I had, I had to bring Mike on. No, we had to diversify a little bit

Mike Falsetti: glad to help.

Dan Blewett: Yeah.

Bobby Stevens: It’s hard to carry the weight of the [00:01:00] catcher of the catching world on the morning, brush back all the time. So

Dan Blewett: it’s tough for sure. Thanks for thanks. Thanks for coming on. Mike. Bobby always needs to help as, as you know, so,

Mike Falsetti: uh, but Mike, all right.

Bobby Stevens: I want to jump in. So I started a mini catching Twitter war a few months back.

Um, but I want to jump into immediately is the one knee catching fat that is sweeping the nation, uh, catchers at all levels, putting one knee on the ground because they’re too lazy to squat on their feet. Uh, where are you at Mike? How do you, how do, how should we be catching? How should I, as a soon to be men’s league professional catcher, be setting up,

Mike Falsetti: um, overall the ideal works because it makes it easier to block the ball.

Okay. [00:02:00] You’re already down on the ground. I’m a big reason why they’re doing it as well as for the catcher themselves to feel lower to the ground, to feel lower to the ground. You’re going to work more underneath the ball as you’re catching the ball and it makes for a, more of a chance to catch it cleanly.

Um,

okay. I believe that the number one thing it does is reduce range for a catcher, um,

Bobby Stevens: define or define range

Mike Falsetti: ranges, moving left, and right. Basically, uh, I’ve done it myself. I never did it. I was always a traditional stance guy, uh, my whole career. Um, that’s how I was always taught. I was always taught.

There’s never. Such thing as a wild pitch, it’s always a pass ball. So I need to be in a position to be able to move anywhere, anywhere or any time. Um, but what that [00:03:00] does is it pretty much puts you in a position, pretty locked position. They’re going to stay there. Guess what? It is pretty easy to just put your chest.

Mmm. Okay. My opinion, especially for younger catchers or in your case, a 40 and over almost.

Bobby Stevens: The nervous on guests

Dan Blewett: when you’re just like fitting pipes and laying concrete for a living you age rapidly

Bobby Stevens: as it used to go.

Dan Blewett: Yeah.

Mike Falsetti: You catchers growing up. I firmly believe you should. You should learn how to block out of a too late stance and then maybe go to the one leg, but you should never start at the one leg and go to the two lane.

Um, you’re kind of skipping carts there and pretty crucial foundation movements. It takes to be able to create angles and control the ball, and even to be able to react out of the pitchers. And like, [00:04:00] if, if you start a kid with a one knee stance and you’re teaching the that’s the right way to block, there is no force of a reaction to having their brain like kind of when you’re hitting.

You have to react if you don’t have to necessarily react. If you’re just sitting on the ground, waiting for the ball to come to you. Um,

Dan Blewett: yeah, that makes

Mike Falsetti: sense. A lot of steps and it’s messy. It’s messy, but they do have a point. I just don’t firmly believe it’s that important.

Dan Blewett: Well, so I saw, uh, and this was one another catching guy on the Twitter, Twitter verse, tweeting this out and be like, yeah, this is why one knee blocking is kind of rough.

And they showed a guy who was, you know, as a catcher, he was into a left into a righty. And I guess they were throwing us, uh, you know, like a left-handed slider into him. Right. So he’s kinda stuck in that quadrant guy throws on the other, the wrong side of the plate. Catcher just has like no chance to block it.

[00:05:00] So, I mean, everything you said with it, reducing your lateral mobility, it is just like a Hunter. It seems like it’s subjectively true. Like the guy just had no shot of blocking that ball. And so I guess in the big leagues, most of the time that works, like guys have pretty good command. Like they don’t miss the wrong side of the plate that much, but they’ve certainly still do it.

Mike Falsetti: And, and nine times out of time, that pitch it’s way over there. You’re not going to block it, but the ones that are being exposed on this Twitter are the ones that,

Dan Blewett: that was blocked. The one that

Mike Falsetti: probably wouldn’t be blocked in a traditional stance. Granted there’s some ones right in front of a catcher going down to two knees that probably they miss that they never miss.

If they’re on one leg, What do you, what do you want to prepare yourself for each pitch? That’s kind of the, the question you got to ask yourself and even these coaches, what, what do you want to [00:06:00] teach? Like, what are you, what are you going to, what do you have more importance on, on that? It

Bobby Stevens: just feels like, I don’t mean to cut you off, Mike.

It just feels like trying to teach, like when you teach a kid to have two swings, like, Hey, here’s your two Oh swaying and here’s your two strikes swing. It’s like,

Mike Falsetti: that’s. It’s such a hard

Bobby Stevens: thing to do in hitting such a hard thing to do in general,

Mike Falsetti: where you can put it. It’s, it’s not, it’s not as drastic as a swing, I think because you’re literally just putting your body in a position and waiting for something to happen.

You don’t necessarily have to react as much when you hit or is when you catch it as compared to when you hit, because you know, what’s coming. Um, and your, but yeah, there it’s. The overall idea is putting your body in a position to have success on what is most likely to happen. Mmm. But we all [00:07:00] know what’s most likely to happen.

Doesn’t always happen. Um, and I opinion you get, you, you have to be prepared mentally and physically for everything. And at least the more difficult one, uh, rather than kind of limiting yourself. To being really good at a little amount of thing.

Bobby Stevens: Yeah.

Mike Falsetti: Okay. So the

Bobby Stevens: one, so one knee, I mean, this was like my, my, when I was on Twitter doing like jumping in the catching Twitter world, uh, I was, I was talking about more framing.

We’ll get to in a second, but it feels like being on one knee is beneficial. If you’re trying to get underneath the ball. With nobody on base or with less than two strikes,

Mike Falsetti: because with two strikes,

Bobby Stevens: I feel like with the drop third strike, you have to be able to keep the ball in front. And with guys on base, you have to be in a position ready to at least get out of that stance to throw.

So it feels like being in the [00:08:00] traditional catching stance would benefit the catcher more. 90% of the time. I mean, how often are you catching and there’s nobody on base and there’s less than two strikes. So, I mean, it’s,

Mike Falsetti: it’s a decent amount,

Bobby Stevens: but at the same, same time, like the most important time that you’re catching.

It seems to be a traditional stance is makes a ton more sense whether there’s guys on base or whether you might potentially to block the ball, like you don’t have to block the ball when it’s a two, Oh, count the balls in the dirt. You could try and scoop it, use your hands,

Mike Falsetti: whatever. Well, it goes, goes directly, not in the Atlantic league

Bobby Stevens: or he could steal first base.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. Uh, yeah.

Mike Falsetti: I would like to not talk about this stuff cause it’s never making it.

Bobby Stevens: Uh, so

Mike Falsetti: does that change your cache?

Bobby Stevens: So if you can steal first base, has that changed the philosophy in a negate?

Mike Falsetti: Let’s stick to one knee for Al but yeah. Feel first base. Yes. That completely changes everything because you have to block literally everything.

[00:09:00] Uh, but besides the point, it’s all situation dependent. Um, And they’re the big, the, the issue with the one niche stuff. Isn’t in the primary stance. When there’s nobody on base in less than two strikes, you could do whatever the hell you want. Basically, as long as you get some concrete things like you’re low and you’re underneath and you’re catching the ball beaten, it’s the spot thing, but it doesn’t necessarily matter what position you put yourself in because there is no repercussions.

Um, and your only responsibility is. To catch the ball. And that brings me to my arguments about the robot. Um, but it’s,

like I said, it’s situation dependent. There’s, there’s some situations where there’s a runner on base and you know, he’s not going to steal and you have a pitcher that pretty much as good control you. You [00:10:00] know where the ball’s going to go. Uh, so you can’t afford to go into that one needs stance. Um, but you got a guy throwing 95 with an 87 mile an hour slider that he just learned the other day.

You’re you don’t, you can’t trust it like that. The pitcher doesn’t even trust it like that. Um, well, Dan, do you have a

Bobby Stevens: preference as like, as a pitcher? Like, do you notice the catcher’s stance at all?

Dan Blewett: Not really. No.

Mike Falsetti: Yeah, actually, I did have one pitcher. His name is Dylan Thompson. He was a righty running sync guy.

Um, and he wanted me, he asked me to be on my left knee. I believe it was just to kind of have more of a visual of that kind of downhill running angle of a sinker. Um, and I did it. I didn’t really care because there really isn’t much of a difference in my opinion, as long as you got hands and.

Bobby Stevens: To

Mike Falsetti: carriage in orange juice, [00:11:00] Puritan material.

Dan Blewett: How do you feel about character you do is Mike, does it keep your knees? Okay.

Mike Falsetti: I honestly didn’t know that even sold it in bottles. You got to

Bobby Stevens: get out

Dan Blewett: of your suburban bubble. It’s a fool’s errand. You have to say like an arms worth of carrots to get this

Mike Falsetti: amount of juice.

This was a coffee show.

Bobby Stevens: I

Dan Blewett: have that too. We got a, I got water. I got carrot juice, coffee. These are all very specific to beverages. I ran it. I stopped at Costco my way back yesterday, and man really stocked up. So. So you haven’t found much of a preference from pitchers as far as stands. Maybe they don’t seem to care that much.

Mike Falsetti: In my opinion, I don’t think that the pitchers care as long as they’re getting strikes.

Dan Blewett: Yeah.

Mike Falsetti: As long as they’re not losing strikes, they don’t care. So

Dan Blewett: let’s, let’s summarize a little bit. So for a coach or some players who are like, yeah, I’ve been seeing this one leg stuff, it’s been interesting to me.

Should I be teaching my 14 new [00:12:00] team this? Or should I be learning this? What, uh, what would you say your action items or your thoughts are for the youth game? With one of them?

Mike Falsetti: I would say go ahead and learn about it all you want, but. That’s for the one knee, a secondary stance or primary stance. Um, I wouldn’t put too much value on it until hand eye coordination is elite.

Um, your understanding of each situation of the game is undeniable. Um, That’s that’s pretty much it. I mean, any stance, if we’re just talking about receiving from a stance, your hands, Trump, every, every single, uh, technique I should say. Um, and if. If you’re starting a kid at a one and he stands developing blocking [00:13:00] habits, I think it’s going to be less productive than starting them on the two, two new stance and making them learn how to tradition traditionally black and then kind of form it all where they want to form it.

Cause there’s a lot of hybrid guys too, that start me and the big legs and Amanda finished. One nigger started with full knees up and then finish on one knee. And that’s how I kind of used to be too. I would kind of just let it react. Um, there’s, there’s no real one concrete way of doing it, but they’re kind of making it out to be the one knee or two knee.

Um, but a lot happens. There’s a lot of gray space in the middle and this whole conversation. It

Bobby Stevens: feels gimmicky. Like when we, when I see some of the younger guys that

Mike Falsetti: it’s not, I mean, there’s results, there’s results at the big league level, for sure. Incidents.

Bobby Stevens: Yeah. I’m saying though it feels gimmicky at like, like we’ve got a couple catchers in our program that [00:14:00] have

Mike Falsetti: either a

Bobby Stevens: different catching coach or I’ve got guys on the fall team, like from different programs that I see in there.

They’re younger kids. They’re 14, 15, and they’re on one knee already. And kind of how you said it’s like, they need to have certain elite aspects of their game before they can, before they incorporate, you know, maybe something like this, which would be a higher level way of doing it, which I don’t think is like a drastic as something maybe like a swing change or maybe a pitching mechanical change.

Mike Falsetti: I mean, it’s kind of like your hands higher and your stance or something like that. Kind of, but I didn’t mean to cut you off.

Bobby Stevens: I just think it’s it’s it feels right. It’s like, give me, like, you’re sending your son for one-on-one or if you’re sending your kid to Dan for pitching, and he’s got him doing all these different types of drills, like you wouldn’t start off with weighted ball stuff with a kid.

Who’s just learning how to pitch. Most games. Kids are just learning how to catch, like. Like be a true catcher, you know, when you hit the age where you [00:15:00] actually have a position, as opposed to being like nine, 10, 11, where, okay, well, third inning now it’s, Tony’s turn to catch, you know, when you start getting 12, 13, when you start developing into like a positional player, if you’re starting there, it feels gimmicky when there’s probably more baseline attributes that they can be acquiring just as a catcher, like how to get your chest over the baseball to keep it in front, you know?

Hi, is that footwork on the throw to second base stuff like that?

Mike Falsetti: I would say the one, the one time I really did teach it to youth or kids that I don’t necessarily wanted to teach it to are the ones that aren’t flexible enough to feel low in a stance, basically like their legs just don’t work well enough to.

Feel low enough to feel underneath the pitch. And that’s kind of what you need to do in order to be able to see it well [00:16:00] and react well. Um, and the one needs stands kind of gives them a little bit more flexibility within their stance to get into the better position. Granted, they need to work on their athletic ability and their flexibility in order to.

Reach their potential, but that’s one situation where this one leg thing works, um, with, with the youth kids.

Yeah.

Dan Blewett: But so my, my big question is, so that’s obviously one of the recurring trends or upcoming trends in the baseball world with catchers. What are some of the other ones that you think are. New edge kind of things that young players and parents are probably like, Oh, maybe I need to be learning that. Or is this a good thing?

I mean, I’m sure there’s other ones out there. So what are some of these other sort of controversial, or like you said, kind of new [00:17:00] fads that are maybe good. Maybe not as good. Maybe you should learn, maybe not learn.

Mike Falsetti: Um, well, I mean, I think the most apparent one besides the one knee stuff is the receiving techniques of.

Basically the overall idea, which they are right, is that it is proven that moving the ball back towards his own works for getting stretched call. Now the question is, how much do we move or how do we move it? Um, so. There’s every, every different technique in the book, even in the big leagues, but, um, you’re seeing more and more the catcher move the ball no matter where it’s caught all the way back to the middle of his chest, no matter where it’s cut.

Mmm. I used to be close to that guy coming up through college and early pro ball. [00:18:00] Um, and I was pretty good at it. I would move the ball. I wouldn’t really care about how much I was moving the ball. Um, the only thing I care about is redirecting that balls path to directly where I want it to go as quickly as I possibly could.

That’s all that you really need to do, no matter what, uh, technique you’re using, it kind of forces that issue. Um, but as I went on through my career, the more I moved it, the more prone the umpire was to say, Hey, what the hell are you doing, Mike? Like, I literally just saw idea move the ball off the plate, back to the black.

You just told me it was there. And I started thinking about it. And these arms that I was talking to were no joke either. I remember one was a ex, uh, bigly gum for about 10, 12 years. I forget his name, but he was kind of the one that sparked my, uh, Kind of deeper thought into the technique. [00:19:00] Um, but yeah, the biggest, the big thing years ago was the sticking hole to catch the ball people.

Exactly where it’s at. That was all you really be told, get your thumb under it, sticking, get your thumb under it, stick it, be strong. Uh, and that doesn’t really work that well. You gotta think about it a little bit more. So what is what they call it? One of the techniques is called flection extension. Yeah.

And the other one is extension to flex your, um, ones where you start with your arm close and you finish it extended other vice versa. I’m all about working through the ball or letting the balls momentum, help your glove move itself. Um, so the big thing is that. Austin hedges. Uh, the guy, Austin Barnes, he’s a big guy doing it is the amount of space that they’re moving.

The ball is pretty [00:20:00] ridiculous, but Austin edges last year showed results. Who’s the number one receiving catcher, according to. One of the things, baseball savant or whatever. And he was one of the guys that moved it a lot

Bobby Stevens: and

Mike Falsetti: he pretty much boosted up, um, in the, in the leaderboards from the year before just by doing that.

Um, I don’t think it happens as clearly as people think it does. I don’t think the improvement happens as clear as I think it does. I think there’s a lot more that goes into, uh, A catcher’s receiving as in like even controlling his pitchers, knowing how to call a game, the umpire, um, and all that. But when it comes down to it, Yes, I believe moving the ball helps you with your ability to catch the ball efficiently and not let the ball control you.

But I [00:21:00] think it does take away from the visual deception that you want to create from, or for the umpire for yourself, I should say.

Dan Blewett: So is it part of the catcher’s job to deceive the empire?

Mike Falsetti: Yeah, of course.

Who’s according to who

Bobby Stevens: the umpire

Mike Falsetti: by

Dan Blewett: me then do they distrust you? And then they want to like, screw you over.

Mike Falsetti: If you see a bore, if you get a shot down, the line hit off you and you saw gold fall, but that guy said fair. What are you going to do? Or you saw go fair. But he said, fall, what are you going to say?

You say, Oh, he’s fair. Go ahead. Keep running.

Bobby Stevens: Well, I feel like the umpire,

Mike Falsetti: I feel like the, I ended to see the,

Bobby Stevens: the confident umpires

Mike Falsetti: really good [00:22:00] that way,

Bobby Stevens: but I’m not confident on pyres. Don’t uh, if you’re confident, you’re not necessarily looking at the globe, you’re just watching the ball. If you’re, if you’re probably questioning yourself, then it can go one of two ways.

You can either feel like this, like. I’m sure. And I, you know, I’ve never caught in a game past 15 years old. Uh, I gotta, I gotta assume that the umpire fee doesn’t like you taking the ball from six inches outside and moving it back to the middle of the plate, it’s going to say, Hey, stop moving the ball.

I’m not giving that to you. Like if you’re blatantly trying to make him look stupid, because

Mike Falsetti: that’s what it really would do, right.

Bobby Stevens: Is if you, if you take a ball, it hits the dirt and I’ve seen kids do this. Like basically scoops. It takes right back up to the middle of the zone. Like if you’re going to try and make that guy look stupid, he’s probably gonna tell I take offense to that.

Mike Falsetti: Exactly.

Bobby Stevens: If you’re just doing it on borderline pitches, which is what almost every pitch is, because they’re so good at [00:23:00] locating. I

Mike Falsetti: mean, if

Bobby Stevens: you’re taking pitches that are an inch off the black and moving them to the middle. And you’re doing it every time and you’re consistent with it. You’re probably get a few more strike calls.

You might not, you might late in the game. You might not. He might say, I’m not like I’m not looking stupid. Like you’re not gonna, you’re not gonna, I get everybody all over me when you’re blatantly moving the glove. Yep. I think it’s got, I think he’s probably the conversation you have with the catcher, which is like part of catching, right.

Is like the relationship you have with, with the empire.

Mike Falsetti: Huge it’s in, and now with Coda and everything is pretty much being taken away from the youth, at least with the guys on the pitcher. But, uh, but yeah, I mean, like exactly what you said, if you do a consistently on the borderline pitches, not even just on the borderline pitches on pretty much everything just to, especially if you’re going to be moving it that much, it needs to be a consistent.

Like over deception. I don’t even know what you [00:24:00] want to call it. Um, but I’m not necessarily component to that being finished product. Um, I believe that really, really helps you be able to beat the ball to spot. It doesn’t matter what position you are. You should be able to do that. You should be able to.

Um, the opposite side of wherever the ball’s going and be able to catch it going back on it, same path. Um, that’s the most important thing you have to do when you catch or when you receive a. And be able to quote unquote frame, well, bitches, that’s how you control the ball. Um, and that really, really forces the issue.

You don’t need all that movement in order to create that angle in order to have success doing that. Um, and that kind of goes into how I teach and there’s people call it a bunch of different things. The, I call it the house hybrid or the turn, or some people call it the risk role. [00:25:00] Um, It’s basically, it’s using all of that movement before you catch the ball and then stop once you catch the ball and basically moving the ball with only your glove, rather than the arm, that’s kind of like the Asmani Grondahl or a Yachty is grime, or even a bunch of them.

So Dan, do you guys like pitchers, pitchers are weird.

Bobby Stevens: We know this, like guys, guys have guys,

Mike Falsetti: right? You need them, you need them

Bobby Stevens: they’re yeah, they’re a necessary evil,

Dan Blewett: but

Bobby Stevens: uh, pitchers always have a preference, right? Like, uh, there’s always one starter that has the backup as his personal, like David Ross was always John Lester’s personal catcher, Dale.

Like what. Why would you, like, what are those, I guess, staples of the guys that you like throwing to, and that separated them, I guess, from a bad receiver, [00:26:00] or did you, did you ever feel like somebody was a bad receiver, uh, when you were

Dan Blewett: planned? Uh, there was a point where I didn’t, I didn’t know what a good or bad receiver was.

And then I figured that out. I think my second year in pro ball where I got this older guy. It was from Mike Panama and he was just like sticking balls down and then like fast fastballs down into lefties. At like 93. And he was just like making them strikes where I was like, very sure they’re like, I knew they were going to be balls essentially.

And I’m like, Oh, that’s a strike now. And then I like realized that there were better catchers than I’d been throwing to my whole life. Um, and after that you start to know the difference, but then once they all become good. Relatively good. And there’s still always differences even at the end of the Atlantic league, but the Atlantic league, there were a lot more consistently better.

Um, and then at that point you just want the catcher that understands you. So my last season with long Island, there were two catchers. Uh, both had [00:27:00] cannons for arms. One understood me. And just how I pitched, which was be aggressive early, go in, go up, bounce, breaking balls don’t ever really go away. Don’t really go down the zone.

Uh, so we could work together pretty easy. The other guy. Had like no idea, like he never paid attention and we also didn’t work together that much. So he was always like fastball low and away fastball the way I’m like, no, that’s bad. That’s bad for me. Like he just like called the exact opposite game. So that at that point it’s not really his fault.

We talked about it, but he still just like, didn’t get it. He just was like, kind of going back to his default rather than. I think really taking time to like, think about what I was good at. So at that point, you just want someone who’s on the same page with you, who understands because otherwise you start to second guess yourself.

You’re like, well, maybe he’s got a reason to go away. Like maybe he knows something I don’t. And that’s, that’s dangerous thinking for a pitcher. Cause even though catchers, there are many [00:28:00] catches that call a great game. It’s still, you’re the, you’re the final say. And then yeah.

Mike Falsetti: You know, the call your game.

Dan Blewett: Essentially. Yeah. Yeah. It’s

Mike Falsetti: funny. Cause catchers go

Bobby Stevens: through like this progression of like, what’s important about their position as they get, as they get older, I feel like when you’re younger, you usually put the kid who’s strongest with his glove. Like he, he can catch the ball, anybody that’s pitching, you know, he can handle the hard throwing guys at the youth level.

And then when you get a little bit older, you get the kid who’s. Like you want your catcher to know what’s going on on the field because you know, realistically he can see everybody. She want him being the loud guy that can yell out where the ball’s supposed to go. And then as you get into, as you get into like 13, 14, you want the kid with the strong arm who can throw guys out and make them throw all the way to second base.

And it kind of goes through high school. And then once you, once you kind of get past the point where everybody on the field basically knows where they’re [00:29:00] going, knows all the situational stuff, then you want a guy who can essentially call his own game and command like the pitching staff, like kids just kind of go through this whole, like cycle of what’s important

Dan Blewett: from there.

Yeah. It’s like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s like, you’re not thinking about enlightenment when you. Don’t have shelter, you know what I mean? So, yeah, when you’re a hundred percent, when you’re young, you just want to catch up who doesn’t, who can just like keep runners from stealing, like insanity. And then you want them just to be at a block, the ball most of the time.

Right. And then you like, then it just, so it’s all those sorts of things. First, the big physical things,

Mike Falsetti: I think a really good youth catcher changes the game more than any other position, maybe besides a pitcher. Besides a picture number two.

Bobby Stevens: Yeah. I mean, if you’re at the youth level it’s goals, singles and triples,

Mike Falsetti: you got a real bad one.

It’s going to be a long day.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. There’s a, there’s a really big gap on the [00:30:00] continuum of, of what happens. Yeah. I’d say the difference between an app. Like if everyone has an average catch, do you have a great catcher? It probably doesn’t change the game as much, but like you said, the swings from one pole to the other huge where it’s it’s so it’s so hard to watch when the kid can’t block the wall.

Yep.

Bobby Stevens: Even blocking the ball. It’s when you, like, if you get to the level of. Or 13, 14. And he can’t make that throw. Yeah,

Dan Blewett: it’s bad. Like,

Bobby Stevens: yeah. When singles are triples, it’s a tough, it’s a long game and it’s like, there’s nothing you can do as a coach. Right. Which is why I said that kind of, you kind of throw the kid back there who can handle like the most important needs of the, of the age group, which is if it’s throwing down to second base, like you need a kid that and throw the ball and potentially get somebody out.

Yep. I mean, it, regardless of whether or not he’s ever caught before. Uh, so I’m Periscope, we’ve got, we’ve got a question which is,  paraphrase a question about it’s about knee savers.

[00:31:00] Mike Falsetti: So these sabers were a huge thing.

Bobby Stevens: When, uh,

Mike Falsetti: I grew up with that,

Bobby Stevens: I was gonna say are a huge thing. Are Neve savers a thing anymore?

Mike Falsetti: Yeah. I assume all the time are there, they still haven’t changed the logo still. Same to, um,

Bobby Stevens: Dan, have you ever used these savers? Have you ever tried them

Dan Blewett: once? And I was like, this is magic.

Mike Falsetti: Oh, it’s so comfortable.

Bobby Stevens: This is one of the most comfortable, one of the most comfortable things I’ve ever used.

Mike Falsetti: So I grew up with them, played with them until my rookie year.

Actually my rookie year was my pitching coach. Billy brick, um, is a hometown guy and he goes to me one day. He goes, Falsetti. Does he look old? What do you mean? I’m a rookie at this time 22. It’s like, you’re one of the sabers, like who told you, you deserve the right to wear those things and it just [00:32:00] kept constantly.

So the baseball gods are going to hate you. They’re going to hate you. They ever given you the right to do it. And I never warmed since that was it. It was more like, if you

Bobby Stevens: weren’t advice.

Mike Falsetti: Do you want them go ahead. I never thought you looked soft, but actually looked a little soft.

Dan Blewett: Well, do they, do they prevent you from doing anything you need to do?

Mike Falsetti: Absolutely not

Dan Blewett: really. I figured that you’d be a little higher that they might know.

Mike Falsetti: It depends. And what slot you put them in? If you put them all the way down there really isn’t that much of a difference.

Bobby Stevens: They’re so cute. I can do the whole podcast from these savers.

Mike Falsetti: They’re

Bobby Stevens: so comfortable.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. That was how I felt when I wore them the one time.

Are they less popular now? It doesn’t seem like you see many guys wearing them. Like,

Mike Falsetti: bless back. I couldn’t tell you the actual stats, but I see them a lot less often now than I [00:33:00] did when I was growing up flame.

Dan Blewett: Well, the question is also, does it actually save your knees? Because there’s the, I mean like dissonance in like the fitness community about whether, you know, some people like all full squats, more pressure on your knees.

That’s not, I don’t know if that’s necessarily true and I’m not sure that like full squatting Olympic, I mean, you’re taking your knees through full range of motion. The sheer force has changed significantly. I can’t call it. I used to be able to, but. The people who will, uh, were to advocate for like half squats, like in the gym, because it saves your knees were like those arguments.

Weren’t very strong. But again, I’m a little, I’m a little rusty where I could debunk it and

Mike Falsetti: research. I think it boils down to flexibility once again, like if, if you’re flexible enough to get all the way down in your stance without having your knees hurt, you don’t need any sabers. If you’re trying to get, literally can’t get [00:34:00] down and you need support.

They might help.

Dan Blewett: I want to rebrand them something. I mean, because millennials are so soft, like it’s such a soft generation, like knee lineals, knee lineals or generation, knee, just somethings like, look, we made these for you. Like you guys cry a lot. You whine a lot. You’re very entitled. We made this version just for you like a cell phone pocket, you can toss the, tuck it in here, your name and your home.

Mike Falsetti: I wouldn’t, it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t

Bobby Stevens: catch it. I feel like the, the wear and tear on your knees is the blocking that happens on your knees. Like to just

Dan Blewett: cause and Ruff

Bobby Stevens: smashing your knees into the ground. Like

Mike Falsetti: cause when you seek kids practice

Bobby Stevens: catching, it’s always like they don’t gingerly go down to their knees.

They’re basically just smoking their knees. Indoors on concrete and those like the, I mean, I guess you got, you have shin guards on, but

Mike Falsetti: I can block it in the game. Feels a lot better than blocking in practice. And that’s why,

Bobby Stevens: why do you block and practice?

Dan Blewett: Hmm. [00:35:00] So let’s talk about something that I find fascinating.

So I’ll share a quick story. I watched a guy get hit in the nuts. And he was in such pain. He crawled for no good reason, right? He just like a grown man is crawling away from everything and nothing. At the same time, he crawls all the way, almost a third base box coach’s box. And then somehow he’s back in the game.

Four minutes later, this was a long delay. He got, I mean, he was hurting. How rough is it? How often do you get hit and how do you mentally get yourself back in there that fast? It seems, it seems insane sometimes that you guys are just like a couple of deep breaths and you’re back in there.

Mike Falsetti: Well, I mean, yeah, cause you’re a pitcher of course, but yeah.

One, you can’t do anything to avoid it, put it that way because it nearly [00:36:00] always happens on a fall tip, which is something you can’t control. The only thing you can do to avoid it is please anybody who’s listening to this show where a cup, a funny story. When I was on the Chicago dogs or worki catcher, I won’t name his name, but he never wore a cup.

Oh, my whole year I told him every game. I’m like, dude, you should probably wear a cup today. Never, never did. It said I never got hit. I never got it. I’m like, Oh man. All right, you’re going to learn Rook last game of the year, second pitch of the game. Why don’t you go? Uh, I couldn’t stop laughing the whole game when I said I told you so he was okay, thank God.

But, um,

Dan Blewett: yeah, cause he could very easily not be okay. That’s a very fast moving ball against him.

Mike Falsetti: They smell good. Um, but yeah, it’s not fun. It, it’s almost kind of [00:37:00] that onset puke effect where. You don’t know what’s about to happen and you just go, that’s what I see. That’s why mountain visits need to stay in the game too, because I used Mt.

Visits in that situation. As a catcher, I’ll go out there and say, Hey man, I need a second. I just got hit in the nuts.

Bobby Stevens: So I played with a catcher

Mike Falsetti: who also

Bobby Stevens: went to university of South Carolina, uh, with the Orioles. I play with him, Justin Dallas, give him a shout out.

Dan Blewett: Um, He’s done, but he’s fine.

Bobby Stevens: I’ll I’ll, I’ll send them the clip,

Mike Falsetti: but

Bobby Stevens: that only does not work up.

Sorry, sorry, Dallas.

Mike Falsetti: He also wouldn’t wear sliding

Bobby Stevens: shorts. He would just wear the baseball pants. So I mean, to get, it was basically catching with like, uh, millimeters of fabric protecting himself and I give it to him. I mean, he blocked everything and I, I don’t think I ever saw [00:38:00] him get hit during a game.

Which I guess, I guess is a

Mike Falsetti: dirty factor. You get to hurt

Bobby Stevens: it. Yeah. You get dirty. Like it’s a filthy position then you play it to begin with.

Mike Falsetti: But like I said, it’s not that

Bobby Stevens: you like it. You’re like, okay, you’re good at blocking the ball. Like you trust yourself to get the glove there. It’s one of the kid foul

Mike Falsetti: tips one,

Bobby Stevens: and you can’t react fast enough cause it’s impossible.

Or, and it hits the ground and it comes up underneath

Mike Falsetti: you.

Bobby Stevens: I saw, I never wore one as an infielder. Like after my sophomore year high school, I stopped wearing one and I, my, my first year of pro ball in rookie ball, I saw a kid take an absolute laser one hop and he was done. They take him to the hospital and he got hit and he doesn’t wear a copy there.

So I put a cup on for like the next two weeks. I’m like, I’m going to wear this Cub just in case one

Dan Blewett: of the were two of them. Well, it’s funny. I was just

Mike Falsetti: mentally [00:39:00] though. Like I can’t, I can’t even catch a bullpen without a cup.

Dan Blewett: Why would you want to, I mean, it doesn’t matter. I mean,

Mike Falsetti: the reason to do anything catching without a cover, you’re just, you’re just, you’re putting a bet down that you’ll never win.

Well,

Dan Blewett: I mean, I think most people even then are like, just get it odd, just get hit and it’ll hurt. I was like, no, you could be seriously permanently. Yeah. Well, and it’s funny that I just don’t listen to this book and the guy’s talking about predicting future events and how terrible we are at it. And, uh, these like black Swan events.

So like example of like a black Swan event, COVID-19 pandemic massive disruption to the world that, you know, you really couldn’t see this coming nine 11. Like there weren’t really signs that that was going to happen and people try to predict these things. And then after that, they make adjustments to their daily life, all that stuff.

But, [00:40:00] you know, so your, so your buddy, your rookie catcher’s logic, his logic saying. Well, I’ve never been hit there before. Therefore I won’t get, why would I get hit in the future is like literally the idiots he’s talking about in this book, literally the stupidest logic. It’s like, how do you even respond

Mike Falsetti: to that?

If you don’t, you just let it, you just let it doing one lesson.

Dan Blewett: That’s your logic that it hasn’t happened yet. So it won’t happen.

Bobby Stevens: Oh, good

Mike Falsetti: grief.

Bobby Stevens: That’s like why

Dan Blewett: that’s like natural selection. I mean,

Mike Falsetti: not want to learn the hard way.

Dan Blewett: Yikes. I’m

Bobby Stevens: cringing a little bit. Just listen to you guys. Talk about it.

Dan Blewett: So let’s, let’s jump to mound visits.

So how much do you read body language? And what are you looking for to try to like control a game and what should catchers know as far [00:41:00] as body language and the rising waves and falling ways of a pitcher confidence?

Mike Falsetti: Uh, I think it’s happening every single second of every game. Um, if it’s not, then you’re not doing your job as a

Bobby Stevens: catcher, right.

As a baseball player,

Mike Falsetti: in my opinion. They’re not reading body language in this game, particular you’re, you’re missing out on opportunities and yet, um, but that’s when, when it comes to managing pitching staffs, you, you brought it up, uh, uh, you couldn’t have said it any better. Like I always tried. My hardest from day one, the second I met my entire pitching staff to start understanding them.

Granted, I had my identity, I had, I was the, the ha the guy who loved being there, whatever I’m goofing off, I’m still taking it seriously, but, um, it’s, it’s all about the game for me. Um, [00:42:00] Everybody has their own identity. That’s that’s true. But you do need as a catcher to be able to understand every single one of your pitchers on that staff, it doesn’t matter who they are.

It doesn’t matter if they’re a friend, an enemy, you gotta be able to figure it out. And that’s that’s and the game hasn’t even started yet. Once the game starts and you start reading the body language. Of your picture, uh, in the pen warming up, you see how he’s feeling, you talk to them, um, and you get on the same page, but not only are you reading your body language of the picture, um, written the body language of the hitter to every single.

Opportunity yet, because all of those after be kind of computed at the same time. Um, but what do you think who’s a tougher guy to

Bobby Stevens: manage the guy that’s Uber confident, like over the top or the guy who’s got a little bit of reserve to him, like second guesses, maybe, maybe like after he throws a bad pitch, he second guesses, you know, [00:43:00] not shaking that pitch up.

Mike Falsetti: Uh,

Dan Blewett: yeah. Or the robot guy like me and I was like the robot. Just like just

Bobby Stevens: auto auto throw, whatever, whatever he calls you throw

Dan Blewett: while I was not going to try to be you. I was going to try not to show any real emotion about it.

Bobby Stevens: Even keel guys, I would think are always the best.

Mike Falsetti: I, I actually think it’s the opposite way because it’s tougher to peer into them because they’re trying to hide it so much.

The guys who wear the hearts on their sleeve it’s you know exactly what the. Healing every single second. And if, if, you know, fix it, you can obviously they have to listen. Um, I don’t, I don’t really, I think one’s harder than the other. I think everybody’s yeah, different. And that’s a job with the catchers to be able to understand a lot of different kinds of people too, and be able to kind of associate with them on a moment’s notice for three hours straight.

Uh, and you gotta kind of [00:44:00] figure out, you got to understand that person to be, to understand what kind of person you need to be. Do you need to be that motivator? Do you need to be that best friend? Do you need to be that professional business, straight business guy, whatever you got to find, what really, really pulls at the brain and what, what has an effect on it?

Bobby Stevens: I like the way you’re describing it as the reason that a lot of catchers. Ended up becoming professional managers

Mike Falsetti: is because

Bobby Stevens: you have to read the room like David Ross has got the job with the Cubs without ever coach in a game in professional baseball. Like I think if I, I think what is a one third of all big league?

Uh, it might be more actually one third of all Bigley managers are former catchers.

Mike Falsetti: Yep. Well,

Dan Blewett: especially at that level, what I mean. A large part of your job is just literally writing the lineup that you know, you’re already gonna write. Yup. I mean, if the manager doesn’t show up one day, I mean, the players could just sit together and be like, Hey, [00:45:00] who’s playing today.

Mike Falsetti: The biggest thing is that

Bobby Stevens: in our field today,

Dan Blewett: like, no, you ate it. You never play it. Obviously it’s this like, like we know who’s playing, you know what I mean?

Mike Falsetti: Both of you guys experienced professional clubhouse before. Bobby. How, how often do you hang out with the pitchers and Dan, how often do you hang out with the position

Dan Blewett: players?

Not only that they’re human garbage, that’s the problem.

Bobby Stevens: That’s weird. I always hung out with pictures. I feel like

Mike Falsetti: the catchers have to know everybody at all times. They’re the only ones forced into that situation actually see. But

Dan Blewett: from our aspects of the position, that’s a good

Mike Falsetti: point

Bobby Stevens: position guy though, from our aspect, nobody wants to hang out with the

Mike Falsetti: catchers.

Cause you guys

Bobby Stevens: sucked. You’re just, you’re goons. You’re just dirty. Like you’re not, you’re, you’re always sturdy for some reason. Like you’ve always got dirt on you

Mike Falsetti: as it were always clean. For some reason we couldn’t understand it either.

Alright. So I wanna,

Bobby Stevens: I wanna, Danny, did you have something I want to jump [00:46:00] into Dan’s pet peeve?

Dan Blewett: Uh, my, I have a pet peeve. I just want to share a story. One, one, one day. My. Uh, what made my rookie year? My catcher did this. He went like, it was like an ambiguous, like I was in terms of water. Yeah. I threw him a four seam fastball hit him right in the teardrop of his quad clean.

He thought it was going to be a curve ball and his leg became so black and blue. It was like, unbelievable. It was kind of like on the early days of smartphones where. Not, I guess, not that early, but like, I didn’t think to take a photo of it, but I was like, Holy God, dude, you look like you knew that the hospital, I felt at the same time, mortified and proud.

And it was like, I don’t know, it was kind of both of our fault, but anyway, that’s life like no glove, just straight 93 to the teardrop of your leg.

Mike Falsetti: Especially when the guy, when the pitcher throws a fastball and you call the colonoscopy [00:47:00] fish, that’s no festival fund. I’m coming out there and talking to you after that,

Dan Blewett: he, I think sees, but he didn’t want to make that 60 foot hobble.

It was a

Bobby Stevens: one, not a two Dan or was it two? Not a one

Dan Blewett: supposed to be a two. It came in as a one. Alright.

Mike Falsetti: No, I put down a two. All right. So

Bobby Stevens: Dan’s, Dan’s got, Dan’s got an issue with coaches calling pitches. Oh

Dan Blewett: yeah, I do.

Bobby Stevens: This is like a big, this is a hot topic for Dan. This is Dan. This is Dan’s white Waylon on Twitter.

So I, Mike, I have like a two part question, but I guess

Mike Falsetti: the first part of it is

Bobby Stevens: when did you stop or when did the. Did you ever not call your own game? I mean, or when did you start calling your own game? And then do you see the benefit of coaches calling the game for the catcher? Or do you see no benefit in that at all?

[00:48:00] Mike Falsetti: Uh, me personally growing up, I always called my own game. The only year I did not call my own game was one. Actually couple games, like two games when I was on Gary, just because there was a certain picture that needed that there was a scout there and they wanted to see a certain amount of pitches and stuff.

Um, in one year in college where it was a first year coach and he just kind of wanted to control things. Um, what to Dan’s argument? I’m 100% on his side in order for. A kid to really, really learn the game. Like at a higher level, you have to, you have to take control of the game by yourself. You have to call your own pitches.

You have to start training your brain to read that body language at a, at a drop of a dime. And if you have someone else doing that for you, your whole [00:49:00] life, you’re never going to learn.

Dan Blewett: Well, I agree. I mean, I think Dan agrees. Yeah. I mean the whole thing is, sorry. I’m tending to YouTube here as well. Um, part of it is that, like you said, like how many times do we want kids to learn by failure?

Right? We want them to learn from failure, but yet when it comes to pitch calling, we want to take the choice away from them. I mean, Mike had, when did you start learning what to look for in hitters? Cause that’s a key part of calling. You know your game, like when did you start to look at, Oh, this dude’s doing this or this stance means that, or his hands mean he probably can’t get to this pitch or that pitch.

When did you, when did those things start getting put together for you?

Mike Falsetti: I guess I started, I started really thinking about it when my pictures got better. Um, when I wasn’t just putting the sign down, it was more, I was creating. It was when I was creating my own pitch in order to [00:50:00] have the guy missed the

Dan Blewett: ball

Mike Falsetti: in order to create some visually in your mind, that’ll work, the guy has to be able to execute it somewhat.

And, uh, that was probably 10 to 12 years old. When I started playing travel ball with the bro and Bulldogs. Um, Shout out, shout out yo,

Bobby Stevens: uh,

Mike Falsetti: pulled up for life. Um, but yeah, that’s, it’s, I started kind of fed into the competitive aspect of the game almost where your athletic ability or your mental ability in your partner’s athletic ability kind of increases your inherent thought of the game and try and trying

Bobby Stevens: to beat the

Dan Blewett: other guy.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, my thing is, I don’t think anyone’s really thought about it from like a deeply logical standpoint. Like you start to think like, okay, [00:51:00] how important is that? Is it that we call the right pitch? Right? It’s like important, but not that important, right. If we call the wrong pitch and you still throw in a good location, probably doesn’t matter that much.

Right. Like, you know, that. Um, also, we don’t know what the pitcher’s thinking. We don’t know how confident he is in a certain pitch. We don’t know if he’s throwing three crappy sliders in a row now, and he doesn’t want to throw it again. We don’t know if his arm’s starting to get tired. We don’t know if he doesn’t believe in his fastball.

Um, we can’t see the pitchers. The pitcher has a much better point of view and the catcher has a much better point of view than the coach does from the dugout. Yeah, the coach, their experience is often doesn’t even equal the pitcher. I mean, how many youth coaches have less experience in baseball than their kids do at age 16 or on in college?

How many, I mean, how many pitchers at Vanderbilt or any other big school we’re often better than their pitching coaches were? Um, I’m just out there a lot of them now, of course we know like being, or at a young age, doesn’t always mean you have, you know, wisdom. I’m not saying that, but. You know, you get my point, but [00:52:00] then so then we’re saying, okay, it probably doesn’t matter a hundred percent of the time.

It clearly doesn’t that you called the exact right pitch, execution matters. There’s all these things that the coach can’t possibly know how the coach, you know, what the catcher sees, what the pitcher sees, what the pitcher feels. Um, and so then the coach is calling the game based on his own experiences.

He doesn’t know the pitchers like ins and outs very well. Like if I’m calling a game, I’m always going to be somewhat biased. To do the way I used to pitch or, you know, I have to call the game for nine different pitchers. How am I going to get it? Right? Like, how do I know that? There’s just like, when you start to break down percentages of the, the odds of you getting the pitch call right.

Compared to the guy who’s out there, it just seems ridiculous. Yep. You’re going to, you know, make that call. Right. And now at the same time with really young experience level, I could probably certainly call a better game than a 14 year old kid. But even then when you started to think, okay, what’s better for him long term.

Is it, is it me or is it just letting him do it? And if it’s [00:53:00] the gap between me calling a great game and him calling a not as great game is the gap. Even that big, like if he calls him dumb pitches, but like still executes, does it even matter?

Mike Falsetti: I think, you know, X, your, your example you gave with who you wanted to catch, you.

And, and you could put yourself in the manager’s shoes at that point. Who’s the guy that you trust to call the game. Does the guy have a brain on his shoulders? Can, like when you talk to him, does he sound like he knows the game? Um, there has to be that trust with the coach or the manager, I guess it depends on what level we’re talking about, but.

Um, if we’re talking about the higher level yeah. That trust needs to be there. And if that trust is there, it’s just, you’re gone. Um, but then another thing, like another thing that’s kind of hidden with pitch calling, that’s not really, there’s too much is pitching with a purpose and [00:54:00] pitching to adjustment for the pitcher.

Um, say like the first two pitches, a game guy throws two fastballs misses high in arm side. He’s not getting extended enough. I’m going to call a curve ball just to call curve ball to get him extended. I don’t care if it’s a fastball or I don’t care if it’s a strike, a ball guy swings at it. I don’t care.

I just want to do it in order to him to get us a delivery back. A coach can’t really see that

Dan Blewett: they can’t

Mike Falsetti: hear too much about that third pitch of the game. Being a fast ball. When in reality, that third pitch of the game could help him for the rest of the game. Um, And that’s, it’s just exactly what you said.

Like it’s, it’s impossible for the code. I even called pitches when I coached for, at the junior college

Dan Blewett: level,

Mike Falsetti: I didn’t like to do it. I told my guys, I said, I don’t want to do this. You have to, you have to show me like, you know, a little bit. Um, [00:55:00] but even when I did the, the catchers that weren’t. Playing would be sitting right next to me.

And I would be explaining why I’m calling this or what I’m seeing, and I’m trying to relay that so they could kind of go do it on their own. Um, so if, if there is a right way for the coach to call pitches, it’s to explain in depth in detail, as much as you can, why he’s doing every

Dan Blewett: day. Yeah, the problem though, is you get, you don’t get it to do it in that moment.

So when you’re, when you’re out on the Mount as a pitcher, you don’t have to like, you know, you see the slide or get signed, get put down, you just like, all right. And you go, you don’t have to have that little moment where you’re like really thinking about the way the hit or took the previous pitch, what the situation is like, you don’t, you don’t have that moment where you’re.

Pulling all the data in like a vacuum. And then, and so that’s where I [00:56:00] think you really miss. And then the other thing is like, like you said, you’re sitting there with your catchers and watching it, but it’s always funny when, when people are complaining from the dugout about strike calls, like I can’t, I can’t see if that is on the corner or not.

No one can we complain about it because we want to help our buddies, but you can’t tell you just tell glove movement at best. So it’s really hard to know, like, Oh, should we go back in there? It’s like, well, was that last festival even inside, like go in there again. D was the last one even inside. We don’t know how far was it?

You know, it looks inner half looks the same as inner corner from the dugout. It’s really, really tough to know. Um, and you’re right when you explain it, that’s definitely the best way to do it, but it’s, it’s also really hard to do that unless you’re a, you know, you’re like a second or third assistant, right?

Like you’re. You’re not the head coach. We’re trying to run around and do everything. Exactly. And that’s really challenging. So,

Bobby Stevens: well, I think the big point too is like the level you’re at the guys get paid to win. So if you feels like the catcher’s not [00:57:00] ready to call his own game and can trust someone, we’ve talked about this in the past, uh, on the podcast too, if you’re getting paid to win, then.

Okay. Like you do whatever you feel like you need to do to win the game. If that means you, you have to call it the game from the, from the dugout. Great. If you’re at the youth level and you’re trying to develop a kid and make him better, you know, PIM calling his own game is clearly the way, like I don’t buy into the, well, he’s gonna learn because, uh, I’m, you know, I’m calling the game.

So he’s going to learn because I, you know, I’m calling the right game and. And he’s, he’s putting the signs down. So it’ll instinctively like, no, the kids back there looking at you touch your face and he’s just putting down whatever the hell number he sees. Like he doesn’t, he’s not registering why that’s good or bad.

Like he’s, he barely knows what,

Mike Falsetti: what

Bobby Stevens: day it is. Like he’s just down there doing whatever he’s told to do, which isn’t the, probably the best for learning. That will establish

Mike Falsetti: that that’s that’s worst part of it is, is it screws with the game [00:58:00] flow? That’s that’s what I hated the most. As a catcher being told pitches is waiting.

I don’t like waiting. I like going, like, especially on the defense end of this game, if you’re not controlling the pace of the game, you lose, in my opinion. Um, and if, if you’re, if you’re establishing a higher tempo than the offense, you’re, you’re at an advantage all the time and that can never happen with someone else.

Call it third person in the pitch column conversation.

Bobby Stevens: Dan D would you say the pitcher or the catcher controls the tempo between pitches more, more so.

Dan Blewett: A pitcher. Cause as much as the catcher wants to pull them along, the pitcher can just like, get the ball back end, just stop. I mean, you feel the catcher impatiently waiting.

So I think that helps you keep going, but pitchers that are slow pitchers that are slow. And like, they’re just like a force of nature that no one really [00:59:00] fixes. Unfortunately. Would you agree? Do you agree with that mic?

Mike Falsetti: It just goes with understanding each and every picture you want. You want to find their ideal tempo.

You want to find. You want to see their ideal release on every single pitch and then compare it to every single other pitch? Um, well, yeah, if you could, if you could really feel that pitcher’s ideal cadence just of everyday life and you can lock into that, you want to try to get quick as you can, but you don’t want, you don’t want to rush them if you rush.

Yeah. There’s a fine line and you’ve got to kind of find it and keep it there. And it’s hard to, to like when you’re calling pitches.

Bobby Stevens: I mean, it’s, it’s not that you can’t, it’s not like that the kid calling his own game, call the wrong pitch. It’s like, there’s really only, especially at youth level, like there’s only one person which that a guy can control normally.

And it’s a basketball, even, even when you get to pro [01:00:00] ball, like, yeah, like I’ve played with catchers. I thought I’m like, this guy calls a bad game. Like why we shouldn’t be calling that pitch here. But at the same time, it’s like, you’re looking at the picture and like, well, the guy’s only got one pitch that he can control anyways.

Like, are we just going to get to three, two every time? Cause we want to fool around with the rest of these pitches or like, and by control, I mean, like at least make, look like a strike. Cause like there’s certain guys, you know, like throw their off speed pitch that it doesn’t even start close to the zone or it’s like, okay, this is just a wasted pitch at that point.

Absolutely. And energy and a lot of guys are honestly like guys are the bullpen, Dan. Yeah. You can probably talk more about this than I Ikea, but most guys are two pitch guys out of the bullpen. So I mean, you really got a 50, 50 shot of calling the right or wrong pitch and just cause a guy who hits, like, let’s say it’s a bomb or it’s a double off the wall.

Like it’s not necessarily the wrong pitch just means he had a good, like. He saw it when he hit it. It’s not necessarily that the guy called the bad, a bad game or a bad [01:01:00] sequence.

Dan Blewett: Well, there really is just so much randomness in pitch calling because you don’t know what’s right. And what’s wrong. The end location is also random.

So even if you choose, Oh, this is the pitch I’m going with, that’s like, my thing is in youth baseball, you’re like, you’re gonna call. Oh, it’s gotta be fast ball away. They miss their spot, like 70% of the time. It’s like, it doesn’t even matter that you called the location, like matters almost none.

Mike Falsetti: Thanks though. The call isn’t as random as you think the execution.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. Um, that’s true, but there’s still, I mean, even if the call is less random from your standpoint, I think, I guess my point in that was say you took 10 computer generated sequences of a hundred pitches and you could just send them all out and you 10 alternate universes and in 10 alternate universes.

That picture like is all max Scherzer and universe say he throws random pitch sequence a and then in the 10 alternative universe, you wonder if there’s [01:02:00] really a significant difference. Um, and let’s say all those pitches were the same. So all hundred pitches were like, there’s a fastball in the corner.

There’s a curve ball down the middle, whatever. So that’s like all hundred pitches are exactly the same. They’re just randomized in that game. You wonder how different the outcome actually is in that game. It’s probably pretty different, but maybe not as different as we think we don’t. I don’t know. It’s an interesting thing to think about

Mike Falsetti: less randomness and more variables.

In my opinion, if the, your ability to harness all those variables and come up with your best chance is a good pitch calling catcher or good pitcher that actually thinks game. Um, but yeah, I mean, there is random, I mean, even like, The one thing that’s never talked about in pitch calling is what’s with, is what I looked at every game.

And I almost put importance over the pitcher’s strengths at times, is the [01:03:00] weather so winds blowing in at 40 miles an hour, nobody’s hitting a home run. I want them guys, they hit the ball in the air. I want to hit it. I want them to hit it as hard as they possibly can in there because it’s an hour every single time.

So sure. On a day like that, Generic pitch calling pitcher’s strengths. Hitter’s weaknesses go completely out the window because mother nature is dictating outs in everything.

Dan Blewett: Yeah.

Mike Falsetti: Um, but there’s just variables like that. Yeah,

Dan Blewett: for sure. That’s a good way of putting it.

Mike Falsetti: Variables change every pitch every day.

It’s constant, but there are certain. Rights and wrongs following up certain things that happened in my opinion.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. So let’s, let’s go into that. Let’s talk about what do you, what if there are rules, obviously nothing’s ever set in stone. So we know that if there were like rules, you’re going to lay out that in general, these are [01:04:00] things you should follow as a pitcher slash catcher.

What would some of yours be? Because I have some mine zone we’re going to compare, but,

Mike Falsetti: well, yeah. If I were to nutshell it as a catcher, I want to take in, this is obviously excluding the first pitch of the game. Um, I want to take in the pitch how it moved, where crossed. I want to take in the hitter’s timing of his load and his stride when he’s getting into the hitting position.

First is he, is he late getting into the hitting position, his front foot getting down or whatever you want to say. I know you want to swing your foot down, Bob, but, uh, um, but yeah, and it’s, uh, so you take into that, say, say the guy followed it straight back, so you want to. Put that image in your head and you want to [01:05:00] adjust it to have the guy swing and miss or hit the ball where you want him to hit it, the Pitbull.

So say the guy followed a fast ball right down the middle, straight back. So he’s on time with the festival. So it’s a regular day. No wind, no nothing. What do you want them to do? Do you want him to ground into a double play? Do you want him to fly out? Do you want him to strike out? You need to make that decision first.

So do you want it to jam them? Do you want it to swing and miss or do you want it to hit the end of his bet? And uh, you want them to be out in front? Um, obviously slower pitches work better when the guy’s timed up for the fast ball. So, um, You want, it’s a constant push and pull for me for slowing them up and speeding them down.

That’s pretty generic pitch call

Bobby Stevens: tactic.

Mike Falsetti: Um, but yeah, if I, if I were to generalize it, it’s just, [01:06:00] it’s taking that one pitch and adjusting it and trying to manipulate the next one too. Get the result that you want and that result isn’t a swing and a miss every time. That’s I guess that’s what I’m trying to say.

Um, you can adjust, like if it’s a forcing class falling, just fall, the back, you throw a two seam. It’s probably gonna run in on ’em a little bit jammed them ground ball, double play around, up out of the running. Um, so it’s just it’s it’s that? It’s kinda, um, yeah, it’s just adjusting what you just saw. Put it that way.

Dan Blewett: Okay.

Bobby Stevens: What are your staples, Dan, as far as

Mike Falsetti: idea to when the picture is to execute?

Dan Blewett: Um, I mean, I have some general things, so like for me, trying to help our catchers call games back when I had my Academy teams, uh, helping pitchers to understand like in general, what the framework is, we’re calling their own games.

You know, for me, I, you know, everyone shops at the plate, right? So there’s a middle of the [01:07:00] plate, inner half outer, half in the third outer third corner corner, you know, spot where you’d bounce, a breaking ball where you’d elevate, you know, above the letters and above. So for us, it was always, even, even counts are, have half of the plate counts in general.

So catchers pretty much know that that’s where you’re going to start and then you’ll adjust for the situation. So, um, one, one, two, two, three, two, Oh, Oh, Inner half or half pick one of those. And that’s what, you know, you see most guys in pro ball do, um, you know, don’t jump to the thirds until you’re Oh, one or one to, you know, if you’re, we’re not really going to go to the corners that often we’re like in a more like elevator bounce, something looking for a strikeout.

Cause you’re, OTU, let’s try there. Um, and then, you know, when you’re behind the account, Halves are middle. And then obviously if we have a base open key runner, alright, we’re not going to use halves anymore. We’re just going to jump to thirds. So that’s in, in a sense, I think what catchers and pitchers do, they just never really like frame it that way.

Like you don’t, you don’t want to think that you’re like a robot, but in a [01:08:00] sense you pretty much are. I mean, would you tend to agree with that in general, that with those counts you’re typically setting up in those, those positions?

Mike Falsetti: I mean, yes, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. Maybe not as often as you think a generic jet generic.

Yes. That’s like your, your game plan going into the game, I guess, but like nine whole guy. Oh two. And you don’t want to, you don’t want to play around with them. You’re not probably not going to throw a ball on a dirt. You know what I mean? You’re going to go right after them. Um, it’s just, like I said, it just changes.

There’s so many variables and it changes every single pitch and it depends on who’s pitching, who’s vetting what’s happening. Um, but yeah, the generic thing. Obviously you’re heading the account. You have your, your zone expands

Bobby Stevens: or your, your

Mike Falsetti: success zone. Expand

[01:09:00] Bobby Stevens: Dan. Doesn’t that go against like,

Dan Blewett: I am going to push back.

I’m like, I am going to, I am in a mess around, well,

Mike Falsetti: I was gonna say I was going to push back more as

Dan Blewett: like,

Bobby Stevens: as that’s that’s more of a philosophy

Dan Blewett: for the pitcher, like

Mike Falsetti: thirds.

Bobby Stevens: Well, I’m saying that from the catcher’s aspect, like with the way they’re with the way Catchings being taught now. Like, you’re not giving a target to that zone.

Like a lot of the guys are arresting the glove down and then, you know, coming up to the baseball. So you’re not giving the pitcher like, okay, it’s Oh, Oh, count. I call a fast. And like, you’re not giving them a visual. That’s more for like, okay. The pitcher’s got to understand like, okay. It’s Oh, Oh, I’m working on the

Dan Blewett: half.

Bobby Stevens: It’s Oh, one I’m working on, I’m working on the thirds, you know, it’s two strikes. I’m working on that, on the corners. So isn’t that, that’s kinda more of a, like a pitcher’s philosophy and it really

Dan Blewett: loud. And Mike, so the problem for me that, that solves and you’ve, I don’t know if you’ve, have you spent much time in youth baseball?

Probably not. It’s cause you’ve been playing recently, but

[01:10:00] Mike Falsetti: I have, I’ve been around the training of it. Not necessarily coaching as much. Yeah.

Dan Blewett: The big problem in youth baseball is they don’t understand margin for error. Like they understand that you go down the middle too old, but they don’t really know why.

And when you sort of break it down, you’re like, okay, well, She went, Oh, you know, catcher, you’d probably put your mic down the middle. Right. And they go, I go, why? Well, because we need a strike. I’m like, but why, why does middle? Cause you don’t want it to end up in your mid to you. You don’t want to, our goal is not to pipe it to, Oh, is it?

And they’re like, Oh no, I guess not. It’s like, it’s because it gives you more margin for error. Like you didn’t miss and catch up and they don’t really understand how manipulating margin for error. Is really like a huge part of location. And so what most young pitchers seem to do. I mean, if you ask around, they all do this, they have two zones of the plate, which is middle and the corner, and then it hurts them so much because all right, they see, they get ahead.

Great. Then they bop right to the black [01:11:00] and then guess what happens at least half of their misses are off the plate. And so now they’re back to one Oh one and they’re back over the middle of the plate, right. Instead of. Alright middle. Now we’re going to go maybe out or half, maybe out or third. So you still have a much, you know, now we have like a two thirds chance of getting to OTU instead of a 40% chance or whatever.

And that’s like one of the big disconnects where we’re trying to help. We always try to help my catcher say, look, look especially, Oh, one pivotal count or one, one. We need you to have more of the white, your body on more of the white, because we’d rather you then put the ball in play. And the VP over, or we have a better chance of getting to, Oh, two, one, two, and then we can do all that other stuff.

Does that kind of make sense?

Mike Falsetti: Yeah, I, I completely agree. Uh, the, the more ahead of the count in general, the more off the plate I’m going to be setting up. Whatever the pitch call is more up. I’m going to give the target. Um, I guess, yeah, [01:12:00] I guess, correct. I guess it doesn’t happen a hundred percent of the time.

I guess that’s what I’m saying, but to Bobby’s point, all catchers still do give targets. You just don’t see it. They give it early, they give their sign, they get in their stance, they show it and then they rushed.

Bobby Stevens: So

Mike Falsetti: it’s

Bobby Stevens: a, it’s a, it’s an invisible target is what you’re saying.

Mike Falsetti: The targets there. You just got to remember it.

Prefer catchers, use the old

Bobby Stevens: catcher’s gloves with the orange outline on the glove. So I know where the hell I’m supposed to throw. Those

Dan Blewett: are amazing. Can we get a big lead catcher to get one of those custom made, obviously with pro preferred leather, but just like. Just to throw it back for us.

Bobby Stevens: Why did they go out of style though?

That is that’s a great invention. Whoever did that,

Dan Blewett: whatever the factory that made that orange [01:13:00] patent leather probably caught fire and burned down or

Bobby Stevens: something, same, the same factor that was making the old catching gloves that said Lance Parrish on him all the time. Lance Parrish was the most famous catcher I’d ever heard of because his name was on every glove.

I don’t even know. I honestly don’t even know if he played in the big leagues. If

Dan Blewett: at all. I don’t know, no one who said, um, let’s talk about this setup. So you’re right. Uh, Mike, that pitchers, essentially, we like, see, when we see you set up there for that brief second it’s like, we take a snapshot and then it’s like in the bank, that’s, that’s going mentally.

We’re already visually, like we know what’s happening and then it doesn’t matter after that, like we started delivery and we’re good. So what would you advise young people to do? Like what do they need to know about? Pre-pitch set up where their hands go, all that stuff.

Mike Falsetti: Essentially you’re giving your target until the pitcher starts to delivery.

That’s exactly what you just described. Like once you start your delivery, you’re gone. Um, so what I teach my catchers is to [01:14:00] keep the target target up or flash it, even if you want to stay relaxed until that front foot gets picked up by the pitcher. And then what essentially happens is you load your glove, just like you would load the hit.

Getting yourself in the best position possible in order to control the ball as it’s coming in. And one relaxed position is by far the most important thing, and two is to be low working underneath the ball. So that’s, that’s what’s happening. When you see those gloves drop to the ground, Bob.

Dan Blewett: Yeah, I

Bobby Stevens: still like, I don’t get it.

Any credit to catchers who don’t have the orange outlined glove,

Mike Falsetti: orange glove and new savers. And then could we talk about catchers? Always had

Bobby Stevens: like the cat sure. That have the shoulder pad or the neck thing dangling down from their mass, like catchers are just weird. So [01:15:00] many gadgets.

Dan Blewett: We’re getting hit in the throat is not, not a pleasant experience.

Bobby Stevens: I need a big league catcher to come out and wear like the two shoulder guards. I see some guys, some guys where the shoulder guards don’t they like the ones.

Mike Falsetti: Usually you usually wear it on your right and that’s it. The left nobody cares about, but if you get hit right here and you’re right, you don’t want to throw the ball for another.

Bobby Stevens: Why did the neck flap Gullah thing get.

Mike Falsetti: Well, that should never have existed because it teaches catchers to block the wrong way. Um,

Bobby Stevens: why it teaches you, it teaches it. Your neck is protected. Yeah.

Mike Falsetti: That you can do this,

Bobby Stevens: but it looks, looks like, and then you can put a logo on there. You can put like your catcher’s Capitol logo on the neck thing.

Mike Falsetti: The that whoever that big liger is needs to have no cup and server Seaver favors up to,

Bobby Stevens: I am very antique. I’m sorry, Dan, I’m

Dan Blewett: sorry. I appreciate

Bobby Stevens: one more opinion that I hate about [01:16:00] catchers. I hate the hockey mask cuts. I prefer the two piece just because it makes you look more bad-ass, which was why probably why Mike wore the hockey mask his whole life.

Mike Falsetti: I guess the only thing I was excited going to college for is wearing the two piece. Yeah.

Bobby Stevens: The two piece definitely looks bad.

Mike Falsetti: I firmly believe that helps you on fall tips that hit you in the mask too, because it just explodes instead of rattling around.

Dan Blewett: Hmm. That’s an interesting idea. I wonder if I wonder if there’s any, uh, I’m sure there’s a lot of recent research behind those hockey masks, but I wonder if any of it’s like out there where, or just internal, like engineering kind of stuff, you know, That, that actually is a really interesting point because when stuff breaks.

So it’s like if I was to hit Bobby with the chair,

Mike Falsetti: it’s just all disperses

Dan Blewett: and the chair breaks. He’s probably gonna be less injured than if I hit him with a chair that doesn’t break

Bobby Stevens: exactly like a WWE chair verse

Dan Blewett: that makes that’s interest. That’s an interesting [01:17:00] idea. Yeah.

Mike Falsetti: I mean, it’s supposed to put it on, take a fall tip and you’ll feel it.

Bobby Stevens: Let’s try it later. Mike, I’ll throw the ball straight at your face.

Mike Falsetti: We’ll get the stream going right before my softball game

for 64 more days til next year, Saki, try out.

Dan Blewett: So, okay. So throat guards never should have been a thing. Um, cups should always be, should always be a thing. Shoulder to shoulder guards probably need to be a thing. Um, are there any spots? So let’s talk about thumb guards. God’s the one that’s not typically known by a lot of players. Like they don’t really know it exists until they either break their thumb or sprain their thumb, or like I broke this port, bullpen, catcher.

He went to the hospital cause I threw my. A curve ball or a cutter or something, and just like, tell us about some

Mike Falsetti: guards. Uh, I never used them up until college and then exactly what happened. [01:18:00] There was one of my guys was throwing like 94, 95, everything running off of my left leg and just crushing my thumb.

Uh, by the end of the day, I couldn’t even feel it in my. Backup catcher had the thumb guard and he’s like, dude. So I put it on. First of all, I didn’t even feel it on my thumb. And at the point, my thumb was the size of my, my cath. Um, and then I started like really buying into it. And not only did it like form that sort of exoskeleton protector on my thumb, but it helped me control the ball.

Uh, it helped me get under it. It almost provided a foundation underneath the ball to kind of help it be moved back towards his own. Um, I never went back after that one day. I, I always needed my, my thumb guard. Cause it, it not only protects you, but it makes you a better receiver just physically.

[01:19:00] Dan Blewett: Does anyone not use those in pro ball?

Mike Falsetti: Oh yeah. There’s there’s, it’s, it’s a big personal preference, but, um, I would say. The vast majority uses them now. I mean, they’re even starting to put them in the gloves. Like they’re making them inside the glove. I know Wilson does it. I’m not sure if anybody else does, but I’ve seen those. Yeah. They have the, the thumb guard installed inside the glove.

Bobby Stevens: Now open opening, the thumb

Dan Blewett: opening feels still accompany. Does he still

Mike Falsetti: exist? Evo shield. Yeah.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. They still made them.

Mike Falsetti: That’s like the most popular one. That’s the one you buy separately.

Dan Blewett: I felt like they were we’re in financial trouble at some point. That’s why I asked in that way. If they were still coming, they’re a Wilson.

Bobby Stevens: They’re a Wilson.

Dan Blewett: They got

Bobby Stevens: them all on now. I think.

Dan Blewett: Yeah, it makes sense.

Bobby Stevens: I like that. Like being in pro ball where you take the hot, the plastic and put it in the, uh,

Mike Falsetti: Oh, yeah,

Bobby Stevens: the hot, the hot water. And you make your own thumb [01:20:00] guard. I made like three thumb guards in my career just because just out of pure

Mike Falsetti: boredom,

Bobby Stevens: that’s just a makeup.

Mike Falsetti: Those are good.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. I need some Evo shields for my scootering around, around the city. Couple of elbow guards, just wait and just wait in a crash. I need, I need to be ready for it.

Bobby Stevens: Can we talk about how, how, uh, bad-ass

Mike Falsetti: old school catchers were, where

Bobby Stevens: they were. They were like, basically just standing

Dan Blewett: with a, with a Mac and potatoes

Mike Falsetti: back there with a mitten with just a little bit,

Bobby Stevens: and certainly had to catch it with two hands.

Mike Falsetti: Unbelievable. Which either means, which either means the pitchers were

Bobby Stevens: throwing 50 or these guys were just, they were just catching cannon balls in the off season with her bare hands

Mike Falsetti: who the, those guys were cups.

Dan Blewett: They made a wood. I don’t know a good like dense woods, like Walnut.

Mike Falsetti: When did the cup get invented?

That’s a good question.

Dan Blewett: It’s pretty, it’s pretty old. I’m pretty sure [01:21:00] I’ll, I’ll be, uh, is it Jamie from the Joe Rogan podcast? I’ll be Jamie.

Mike Falsetti: I will,

Bobby Stevens: I will say

Dan Blewett: the Cod piece was around a long, long time from like fencing and stuff like that. That’s in general. Um,

Mike Falsetti: I guess yeah,

Bobby Stevens: men have been protecting their private

Mike Falsetti: parts for

Bobby Stevens: generations.

Mike Falsetti: Oh,

Dan Blewett: that’s the kind of cup I want it. Google pulled up menstrual cups. So also, um, you know, okay.

Bobby Stevens: You have the best Jamie right

Dan Blewett: now. No, I’m not.

Bobby Stevens: I can’t imagine the Google

Dan Blewett: images you’re pulling up. Well, there’s no images and I mean, that’s still, I mean, we’re all humans. I mean, look, women, it’s a part of their life.

Right. But that’s not what I wanted. Google. I want male protective cups. Google is struggling here. Okay. 1874 when

Bobby Stevens: baseball started.

[01:22:00] Mike Falsetti: Yup.

Dan Blewett: Um, yeah. Uh, let’s. Apparently it did provide comfort and support for bicyclists riding the cobblestone streets of Boston.

Mike Falsetti: Hey, Hey,

Bobby Stevens: have you guys been to Boston? Those streets are brutal.

Mike Falsetti: Yeah. Oh yeah. I wouldn’t ride my mic.

Bobby Stevens: Damn rattle your brain.

Mike Falsetti: Okay.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. Fill in apparently

Bobby Stevens: and apparently, or. Other parts of your body?

Dan Blewett: Well, let’s talk about that a little bit. So Mike, have there been any, I know there’s like the nut buddy is one. Um, there’s been some evolution of the cup in the last like decade, right?

I mean, are you still using like the old standard one or is there something like new?

Mike Falsetti: So it was high. I always use use the, I think there were the Ridell plastic, white ones growing up. Um, but my [01:23:00] body played, grew up playing hockey. He was pretty good. Um, and the hockey cups were made of like, like the Ohio. I were glass and steel and I, I, it was laying in his bag, but I’m like, what the hell is that thing?

And, uh, I bought one of those in the, I never went back from those whose it’s kind of like a. Hybrid rubber plexi glass, gorilla glass. I don’t know what the hell it was, but it protected me.

Bobby Stevens: I think the only acceptable cup is the one from little giants where he puts it over his face. That’s the only acceptable cup

Mike Falsetti: I’ve never known.

Anybody looks fun. The

Bobby Stevens: best. That’s the best infomercial. Oh, of all time. Like, if there’s ever been a better demonstration on an infomercial, I haven’t seen it.

Dan Blewett: Well. I mean, that’s what it takes. I mean, do you remember when the, uh, the, uh, the [01:24:00] Kevlar, um, Bulletproof vest was invented? Do you know what it took to get cops to wear that?

So they get

Bobby Stevens: shot.

Dan Blewett: It’s a very remarkable video. No, a guy took a 38 special and went Boehm to himself. Why you can find the video on the web. I mean, look, I mean, it was a, it was a real thing and like, look, I believe in this product, it works. He tested it and tested and tested, but people didn’t believe it could stop a bullet.

He goes, boom. And then he like gets his gun. He like shoots three targets. It’s a remarkable that you can find it. So it’s a remarkable video on YouTube, but a lot of times stuff like that has to be like, Hey, if you believe in the product, like prove it. And I know they did that with a nutty buddy, right?

Like

Mike Falsetti: I

Dan Blewett: have this article pulled up and it’s actually filled with just gems. One of which is they’re talking about Juan, your eBay got hit by 106 mile power ground ball. And here’s the, here’s the quote at the end. Um, there talking about your eBay, he says they didn’t have my size [01:25:00] flight. Wasn’t, that’s why he wasn’t wearing a cup that day.

But I mean, there, there has been some evolution on it. I don’t know why we keep, I keep bringing it back up to it, but I think it’s a. I mean, it’s something that kids like too many kids, you play infield, don’t wear them. And I used to talk to my team about this. I’m like, dude, stupid. Like, that’s very stupid.

What you’re doing, that’s very stupid. I can’t make you do it, but you really, really should, should have one.

Bobby Stevens: When I do, when I do it youth clinics, I always like do like make the kids line up, like, all right, everyone took a shirt and put their hat on, like everywhere in a cup. And then it’s always like the funniest part of practice.

Cause it

Mike Falsetti: cause there’s yeah, well there’s no, it’s always, there’s always like.

Bobby Stevens: Three or four kids that like,

Mike Falsetti: yeah, they’re so happy.

Bobby Stevens: Yeah. They’re like they bang their cup to show you that it works. And like, yeah, they just hit it as hard as I try to make them cup as loud as possible.

Dan Blewett: Almost screen-share here.

Here’s this USA today article. So showing some of the high tech ones,

Bobby Stevens: where’s the

Dan Blewett: little giants cup. This is the nutty buddy. The one that’s unique [01:26:00] shape. I guess

Mike Falsetti: the one that I had

Dan Blewett: shot doctor.

Mike Falsetti: Yeah,

Dan Blewett: but I mean, it’s an interesting evolution. I mean, when I went to Turkey and I was, uh, doing that baseball clinic for almost a month last year, it didn’t even occur to me to like, I hadn’t thought about it.

Cause in America, most kids like their parents know that’s a thing. It’s a part of sports. They’re like, we’re doing catching practice. And like, after like the first day I was like, wait, did any of you have a couple on there? Like. Oh, what? Like, Oh, you’ve never, I heard of this.

Bobby Stevens: Perfect.

Dan Blewett: But

Bobby Stevens: I’m

Dan Blewett: like, I don’t even know what to do now.

So I was super nervous and kind of like, Blocking practice got a lot more simplistic and we use tennis balls and stuff after that, but

Bobby Stevens: it’s just odd that no one would, that it wouldn’t occur to me. Any of them to want to protect themselves.

Mike Falsetti: I just don’t even think they know.

Dan Blewett: Well in that isn’t it isn’t that like lots of kids.

I don’t know

Bobby Stevens: if you’re an adult, like, isn’t that always like in the back of your mind, like protects [01:27:00] my vital parts.

Mike Falsetti: I don’t know if something

Bobby Stevens: could potentially get me there. It’s crossed my mind.

Mike Falsetti: Yeah, it should be.

Bobby Stevens: If you get into you get into like a fight on the streets, like it’s always in the back of my mind, like what if this guy just. Punches me in the nuts.

Dan Blewett: So let’s shift to throwing. So as we kind of like get to work, the, uh, we’ve had a good, good conversation today.

We’re at the 90 minimum. Let’s talk about throwing Mike, what do guys, what do people need to know about throwing? There’s been a lot of debate on Twitter. People rolling their eyes about, you know, these crazy pop times that showcases yada yada, yada. We had Dan Savi from PBR on the show about a month or two ago.

And he was talking about like, look. We can’t prevent everyone from cheating their face off and in these showcases. Um, but like what a kids need to learn, what do they need to do to be better at throwing? And then do you roll your eyes at [01:28:00] pop times?

Mike Falsetti: Uh, in regards to the showcase pop times, I don’t roll my eyes at the numbers.

I roll my eyes at the kids whenever I was in a showcase, I would never. Set up in a spot that wasn’t game like, um, I’ve actually heard some showcases guys that run showcases purposefully putting them up 0.1 because they cheated. So it’s not the, it’s not even a real time. Um, I dunno. That’s just how I was raised.

Shady.

Bobby Stevens: That’s shady too. I mean, no, don’t write, like, don’t add

Mike Falsetti: just.

Bobby Stevens: I think everybody understands. I don’t mean to cut you off. I think everybody understands like, okay, they’re all cheating the showcase. So it’s at least a measure of who was faster at cheating. Like, like there’s guys that there’s there’s pro days, uh, scout days with colleges where they put the 60 yard dash 59 yards.

[01:29:00] So it’s a boost, a few guys like. It’s still all relative. Like if, if it’s, if it’s 60 yard dash is 65 yards, the guy that ran the fastest is still the fastest guy. His time might not be correct, but continue. I’m sorry.

Mike Falsetti: Uh, well, yeah, put it this way. I think, I think you could avoid both if the catchers just set up in the right spot.

And so the PBRs point that’s all it takes is a piece of tape. Um, but in regards to achieving that better pop time, what kids really need to learn as few like overall ideas, um, one is to not gain ground. What’s your first step. Okay. That’s the biggest thing. Um, it’s creating effective momentum off the pusher of your back foot and not.

A walk through with your back foot. Um, you [01:30:00] could compare it. I compare a throw from the catcher to two things. One it’s a relay throw from a shortstop to home. And two it’s a double play, a turn from the second basement. Mmm. You have to be able to adjust to wherever the ball is and be able to move around it as efficiently as you can.

Um, and that goes into, uh, working around your center of gravity and kind of attaching it to the ball in order for you not to gain ground with that. Um, and yeah, it needs to feel connected. Um, the more you allow the, the momentum of the baseball coming into to help with your transfer, um, The more you bring your glove to your hand instead of your hand, your glove, that’s going to help.

And if you feel connected, I basically put the [01:31:00] throw into four parts connected into two, uh, four parts is first step, second, step transferring, throw your transfer. The bulk eating into your hand and up into a short Slack, kind of like you’re throwing a football should happen, should finish at the same time, your first steps hitting the ground.

It’s those two happen? The backsides connected. Okay. Um, pitcher, no, you have to wait until your front heel hits in order for your backside to go. Um, and as soon as that front heel hits or your front side starts going and you start throwing, um, So then that ties into the other two parts of the second step in the throat.

So those should feel connected to, but if you get the first two connected as in the transfer and your first step, that is in my opinion, almost more important than connecting the next two. Um, cause if you have those two, you’re in a pretty good position to start.

[01:32:00] Bobby Stevens: I think the Mo

Dan Blewett: I think the big

Bobby Stevens: thing you said there is like, don’t try and gain ground.

Yeah on your first step. I don’t know if you guys have seen that video of

Dan Blewett: that little kid

Bobby Stevens: who like runs out in front of the,

Mike Falsetti: the hitter

Bobby Stevens: catches it and the guy swings just smokes them in the back. It’s just like maintenance, maintenance rounds recently. It’s not funny. They got hit, but it’s funny. Like as long as he’s not hurt, I mean, I get it.

That’s isn’t that, you know, the first, why you said a lot of kids, they catch a ball. Their first instinct is like, get a little bit closer to second base instead of get themselves in like a strong position to throw. Cause what does that, what does that have step culture? We’re going to get you

Mike Falsetti: it literally, not that

Bobby Stevens: you’re putting, you’re

Mike Falsetti: putting yourself in the same exact throwing position.

It just taking you a lot longer to get there.

Dan Blewett: Yeah.

Mike Falsetti: Interesting. But yeah, so that’s kind of overall in a nutshell, how, Oh, I like how I try to train my

Dan Blewett: catchers. Okay. Um, arm action, stuff like that. Is it. Something you really need to work on? Is it, I mean, I think [01:33:00] one of the common things I think kids seem to do wrong is that they are sometimes taught to bring everything here.

Where in reality, it seems like catchers, they’re catching it through the middle and then the arm is leaving the glove. Correct.

Mike Falsetti: It’s misconstrued. So I believe it’s, it’s a mix of both you, like I said, every single good. A catch and release guy, whether it’d be a middle infielder or a catcher or whatever brings their glove to their hand go, their hand is almost moving independently up to the slot that they’re throwing from and their glove meets their hand at the spot.

Um, at the same time that does happen in front of your chest. It always happened in front of your chest, but while you’re moving, setting up. So your target, you’re not facing your target facing this

Dan Blewett: way. Yeah.

Mike Falsetti: So inherently as you’re [01:34:00] turning, this goes back, your transfer goes back, uh, but it’s still happening in front of your chest.

So that’s when you see, I see a lot of catching instructors teaching transfers out here, which doesn’t make much sense to me because you’re going to have to bring your hand back anyway. Um, gotcha. So yes, I, I. Your transfer does happen in front of your chest, but it’s, it’s happening on the side of your body per se, because you’re turning.

Dan Blewett: Okay. That makes sense.

Mike Falsetti: It’s kind of a happy medium between the two.

Dan Blewett: Okay. Okay. Um, When do you think kids need to start catching? Is there a time that, like, is this something that they need to kind of get into early in their development to eventually be good? Can they play a lot of different positions? Can they pick this up later or do they need to be on like the catcher track from a young

Bobby Stevens: age?

Mike Falsetti: Uh, I believe every, it doesn’t matter what position you want to play. I believe [01:35:00] the first few years of a kid playing baseball, they should at least catch a few games. Um, it is literally the only position that you’re looking the opposite way. Um, you get that other, that you see the game in a different perspective.

Um, yeah. As for a kid that wants to be a catcher or see someone that sees a kid being a catcher. Yes. I believe they should be catching as much as possible as early as possible. Um, Now that doesn’t mean you run them into the ground before they get to high school,

Bobby Stevens: but,

Mike Falsetti: uh, for them to start taking ownership of the position that can’t be taught and in order to make it in such a demanding position and important position, you, you need, you need to.

So want to be there. And I think that can only be developed if you’ve done it [01:36:00] for a long time, because it’s tough to just go in there and catch the game. If you haven’t done it,

Bobby Stevens: a lot of nuance to being a catcher, I would say, I mean, other than pitching, other than being a pitcher, cause

Dan Blewett: you just

Bobby Stevens: can’t do that necessarily every day.

I would say the earlier you can put them in a position that maybe the project that. Longterm, the better catching is catching is the one. And it’s always been the one where it’s like, obviously defense is so much more valued at that position, uh, than other positions that, and shortstop feels like defenses.

Those positions are light hitting positions in the past because they’re demanding defensive positions more demanding than most. But it’s still would be beneficial

Dan Blewett: to

Bobby Stevens: all kids. Like if you know your son, like your son’s a lefty, he’s going to be, you know, the dad’s six, five, he’s going to be a first baseman.

He’s not that fast. Like it would benefit him a ton to just play first base, like actually learn the position, [01:37:00] get, you know, get accustomed to the nuance of the position. And it’s usually what you see at the youth level. The best players have been playing those positions all the time. Like they have an understanding and it’s hard to expect a young kid.

To be good at catching and then, okay. Let’s throw them in the outfield and let’s let them make sure he’s good at like reading a fly ball. And then yeah, he misjudged as a fly ball. You get mad at him. It’s like kids spends a third of his time out there as opposed to the kid, other kids who spend all their time out there.

Dan Blewett: And it’s

Bobby Stevens: honestly like, I’ll feel just looked at as, as like a, you know, put the worst kids in the outfield that’s, which is not necessarily true. Um, But catching specifically, I feel like it’s a nuanced position and it’s, the equipment is different for all other things. Like you got to, if you’re going to be a catcher, you should have your own equipment.

You need a special glove. That’s the only position on the field where it’s a little bit different. Even first base. You can use your regular club.

Mike Falsetti: And that goes into the point where, [01:38:00] and, uh, if, if you do know that kids going to be a catcher, are you, that kid wants to be a catcher. I think it’s extremely important for him to play every single other position too.

And understand how it’s played, especially pitching I think growing up. A catcher needs to know how to pitch. He needs to understand pitching mechanics and how it feels to be on that bump in order to be able to manage a pitching staff to his full potential when he gets older.

Bobby Stevens: I don’t understand why all these professional catchers I made just aren’t that sharp. Like you guys just aren’t that smart, Mike, I don’t know. He should be, you should be a lot smarter for learning all that stuff.

Mike Falsetti: No, that’s because you were always catching pitches after the, after the pitch of her calling pitches after the pitch was after already called.

Yeah, I

Dan Blewett: was good at it. Bob’s a big hindsight guy. Great guy. He hit, he hit that one out. You should obviously thrown up any other pitch. Come on.

Mike Falsetti: Nice. Nice call [01:39:00] dummy.

Bobby Stevens: Yeah.

Dan Blewett: Well have you, uh, Mike, have you read Jim Bouton’s book ball for that old classic?

Mike Falsetti: I have not.

Dan Blewett: If you haven’t, you should, you should read it

Mike Falsetti: exactly.

Dan Blewett: One of my favorite baseball books, but he talks all the time about one of the things he’s, it’s funny how timeless it is. Like it’s written, it was written in 1968, I think. But, um, he’s talking about coaches and their hypocrisy where he was trying to convert into a knuckleballer cause his arm was essentially, he like probably blew his elbow out was what probably happened.

Um, so he’s fighting with his vision coaches. They’re like, you can’t just rely on the knuckle. So when he’s throwing great. And he’s just throwing like amazing knuckleballs one day they’re like, keep throwing it, keep throwing. But then when he gets hit, they’re like, you can’t keep throwing the knuckle ball.

They know it’s coming. Then they do the same thing with the other guys. They’re like, Oh man, that when that curve balls, good, just throw it again. Just keep throwing and make them hit it. But then as soon as they throw too many curve balls and they hit one out, they’re like, you can’t [01:40:00] keep throwing the curve ball.

They just know that it it’s common. It’s like, it’s so funny how he highlights the same stuff that continues to happen. Now it’s like, You know, you throw two sliders, you double up on sliders, you throw a third slide and roll. You get a punch out. Oh great. You know, if they can’t hit it, keep throwing it. But if you trip up on sliders, some don’t all the time they hit it, the gap they’re like, what are you doing?

Triple it up on sliders. You need it. Like the hypocrisy on pitch callings. Will never go away. It’s it’s incredible. Great

Bobby Stevens: pitchers have an easy outlet. You can just always blame the catcher,

Mike Falsetti: except except when you shakes.

Dan Blewett: Except when we get released, because it’s us not, you know, no catcher’s ever been released for our misdeeds

Bobby Stevens: catcher’s era needs to be a thing like you should get released based on your radar.

Mike Falsetti: I completely agree. Completely agree. I mean, it’s literally nine times more [01:41:00] important than the catcher’s batting

Bobby Stevens: average. Are you using that? Cause there’s nine innings in the game.

Mike Falsetti: No, I’m using it cause there’s nine hitters. Yeah, I

Dan Blewett: gotcha. Okay. Okay.

Mike Falsetti: Every pitch on defense,

Bobby Stevens: let him be catchers batting our catchers, batting average, not era.

We’ll separate them.

Dan Blewett: We’ll create us a secret, separate stat for people that will call it the, the false Eddie or something.

Bobby Stevens: I’m gonna start my own website. Catch her savant,

Dan Blewett: the false steady quotient. That’ll be it. I love

Mike Falsetti: that.

Dan Blewett: So, Mike, um, we’re going to wrap up here. How can people find you on the web and what do you do for catheters?

Do you offer any services? You offer Instagram knowledge bombs? Like what do people, what can people get from you on the, on the web?

Mike Falsetti: So I have my, uh, my things called catchers capital. I have Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. It’s a catcher’s capital, C a T C H [01:42:00] E R S capital with an a. Uh, the place to go. Um, and I offer private lessons.

One-on-one I offer small group lessons from two to four kids, and I also offer some camps, um, which are going to be scheduled here soon. Everything’s going to be ran out of the dome in Rosemont. Um, The times will be posted on my website. Catcher’s capital.com pretty, pretty soon here. And, uh, yeah, I’m looking forward to a very, very busy winter with and meeting some, uh, some new catchers.

Dan Blewett: Sounds good. So if you’re out there, definitely follow Mike obviously has a ton of experience, a lot of knowledge to share, and it sounds like he’s a guy who. Is going to help you just like Wade through like what’s actually important and what’s not. And that’s, I think really important in a coach these days.

Cause there’s a lot of info on the web. Some of it’s like a little bit of a red herring, like not maybe like the right thing for your age, your ability. And it sounds like, [01:43:00] again, if you’re looking for a, you know, good catching info, like. This is what you should do this, maybe not as much. I think Mike’s a sound like you’re the guy for that.

So Mike, appreciate you coming on the show, man. It was good to meet you and good talking and catching. Yeah.

Mike Falsetti: Longtime listener. First time guests

Dan Blewett: we’ll have to have a catching panel and get some of you clowns back along here.

Bobby Stevens: Well,

Mike Falsetti: we gotta, we gotta add the, uh, What does the catcher podcast, whatever it’s called.

Bobby Stevens: It’s the morning brush back. Is this the only podcast that

Mike Falsetti: matters? It’s probably maybe the greatest podcast ever.

Bobby Stevens: It’s probably the, probably your favorite podcasts, I think right outside of Joe Rogan experience. This is probably this isn’t the top 10 of iTunes. Last I checked my, listen, my iTunes,

Mike Falsetti: right? I mean, it always pops up for me.

It

Dan Blewett: all sounds all. That sounds correct. So, Bobby, why don’t you send this officer?

Bobby Stevens: Thanks for tuning in. Join us Tuesday. We’ve got Ryan Brownley [01:44:00] from the ABC, the national baseball convention, organization joining us so bright and early 8:00 AM central time. 9:00 AM Eastern.